Building is 90% complete, I have to make the CPU air duct and check all cablings.The Seasonic 1U runs in fanless mode until load is 40-45% so it should always run like this, since this build was easily handled by a PicoPSU-150-XT in the previous case I made, but I wanted to have an internal PSU.A fully vented top cover is available as option, with that I might try fanless cooling of the 2120T.

Have some other pics

Last edited by pm.stacker on Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

This one was piece of cake compared to the former 1U I built in Feb 12, 2¾" shorter was way more crammed with components I decided to get the deepest 1U they make to fit the internal PSU and less HDD cramming, considering there's a 24-ATX cable now it turned out good. And I directly chose the all-aluminum version, which had a 3/8" thick front panel but I could not use it due to material working difficulties with the equipment I have downstairs. And this time 50% less industrial work switching from handsaw to jigsaw 1 hour working time for each panel (20 mins the backing plate) was longer designing inernal layout and components position...

Since I was working on it, I decided to make a little modification: with a 1984 vertical drill and pushing the jigsaw to max speed with special blades I finally made a true Hi-Fi front panel using the 3/8" thick aluminum one was really a PITA working that but it turned out pretty good. Let's see display readability since it's 3/8" deep...

The new power button PCB with industrial grade button and recycled LED

Having a choice, which one is better?Slot-load, no front signs, no protruding parts, more complex mechanically.Tray-load, simpler mechanics, proven reliability (good old PATA drive), some sign up front.

Already planned on blacking out that, I just wanted to enlarge that opening since being 3/8" thick it can cast a shadow from some viewing angles, blackout or not. it should not be too much awful to see some display frame since it's black.

Power tests: average power consumption is 40W with single channel RAM, CPU underclocked to 1.6GHz, single display, front LCD and 3+1 HDD. Not much more than my DLNA server (25W with CF+SSD and Wifi)...

I am thinking about replacing some HDDs in here with SSDs and dropping the DLNA server, recycling the Atom mobo for our home server.

Made some solid state exchanges and tweaked a little.For now the DLNA server has been powered off.

SSD exchanges:Intel 330 series 180GB from laptop to HTPC as music library volume (SATA2), replaces Seagate ST9750420AS. Now it is dual Sandforce driven: OCZ VTX3-60GB for boot and Intel 330 for music Corsair Performance Pro 128GB from DLNA server back to laptop, heavy-duty MLC cells and Marvell controller that doesn't suffer uncompressible data. Lightweight, lower power consumption and less heat.

HTPC tweaks:Intel Core i3-2120T now underclocked from 2.6 to 1.6GHz 0.95V, maintains more than acceptable performances.Dual channel Kingston DDR3-1333 underclocked to 800 and undervolted to 1.35V (like a LP-DDR3).Intel HD Graphics fixed at base speed of 650MHz.Intel 330 series SSD in place of the Seagate 7200 laptop drive, less noise less power and less heat. Instant access to music collection!

Total system power consumption now is 40W average, 54W full load (Linpack 4T-2000MB), with 2xSSD 2xHDD two cards and ODD. For comparison: the DLNA server uses an Atom D525 with just a CF card, 1xSSD and a Wifi card, it averaged at 30W.

Now testing with Linpack if the Kingston DIMMs can handle 1.35V under load: seems to handle it, now lemme try again!

Trying again Linpack with 4 threads and 2000MB memory usage (x32 OS). Underpowering works: full load CPU struggles to reach 40°C and fan spins... 1000RPM. Fanless operation should be piece of cake this way. But there's one caveat: since the Seasonic SS-350M1U power supply has a fan that never spins if load is <50% or temp <60°C, removing the CPU fan would mean absolute no forced air circulation whatsoever inside the case, that would rely only on natural convection from the front bottom grilles to the top cover to cool the HDDs. Don't know if it would work... I had already designed it this way (turning the bottom cover to have the grilles up front where the HDDs would have been, like some Lian-Li cases), now I'll have to get the fully vented cover and do some tests with some 1U passive heatsinks I have laying around...

Tried with a black marker and on the ODD it looked good, but as always with ink it's somewhat shiny, I'll try searching for satin black model paint and a very small brush. Meanwhile, today I modified the inside of the 3/8" panel to allow protruding display mounting screws (they were countersunk head before, flush with the backing front panel), to gain more freedom in positioning and aligning. To achieve this I turned my 1984 vertical drill in a plunge router , using a couple of metal routing bits dad had in his tools, they still work decently, of course the drill stand can't be fully locked but setting 2nd gear max speed (and wearing hearing protection...) does a good job in flattening edges or horizontally enlarging blind holes.

On the left, 3/8" normal blind holes about 50% deep. On the right, I routed it extending an indentation that was already present on the panel, to mount the handles I think. This way I can use any screw type and have more position adjusting.

Testing a Ivy Bridge CPU (i3-3220) standard power. Seems 22nm did the trick: forcing 1.6GHz we have 4W less than the i3-2120T, during Mediaportal use (that stresses the HD2000 GPU). Without underclocking RAM (officially I.B. should work only 1333-1600 while S.B. worked 1066-1333) and keeping HD2500 stock

Last night when I had done everything and mounted the PC in my Hifi, surprise: it kept powering on and then off without booting already had this happen once with the i3-3220 and solved it by clearing CMOS and restarting. Thought it was something with system memory, 2x2048MB Kingston that always worked fine with the i3-2120T, since they're not true identical DIMMs (one with Elpida branded chips, the other with Kingston rebranded) I removed them and switched to 4096MB single channel, should have less problems and for a HTPC that's more than enough.

It is not necessary: last night I powered it up after leaving it unplugged on the table for days, and it did not boot. Tonight, prepared to do some troubleshooting I removed it from the rack, opened it, retried... and it booted straight away , then I tried RAM troubleshooting: single channel CH0 then CH1 with both sticks, then swapping sticks in dual channel and it always worked. With the i3-2120T it never had a problem in every setting (800 1066 1333 even at 1.35V), so I think the Ivy Bridge memory controller may be somewhat more tricky in dual channel mode with non-identical modules. They are the same model (single-sided Kingston KVR1333D3S8N9/2G low profile) but one is ELP-KM001CK 9905474-019.A00LF (Elpida chips), the other KTC-SS041C9 99U5474-012.A00LF (Kingston rebadged, maybe Toshiba?). PCB revision is the same (2025474-0F1A00) but the DIMM sticks are not identical.When I installed the IB CPU I sometimes had a problem with ASIO streaming that messed up and required playback restart (seemed somewhat like a clock sync problem), it might have been related to RAM too.

Now it works, at least until now no problems... I don't have other DDR3 platforms to test those sticks (apart from rebuilding the old H67+2120T board).

PS: took me almost 18 months to rule out the freezing problem that affected my Portege R700: the i3-380M did not like 4096MB Kingston 1333 SODIMMs and sometimes the memory controller messed up. Now with the original 2048MB Samsung sticks no problems (old i3-380M can handle memory at 1066 max). So to put 8192MB on my laptop I should get two system specific 1066 sticks.

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